What is Ada Lovelace day?
I asked Google’s AI for a simple explanation of Ada Lovelace Day, I thought Ada would have appreciated that.
“Ada Lovelace Day is an annual event that takes place on the second Tuesday of October to recognise and celebrate women’s contributions to STEM fields. The day is named after Ada Lovelace, a Victorian mathematician and computer science pioneer who is often considered the first computer programmer.”
Was Ada Lovelace the first person to write a computer program?
Historians debate this. As I am writing this for Diana I needed to read up on the subject.
Ada collaborated for many years with Charles Babbage, an accomplished Victorian mathematician and engineer. Between 1842 and 1843, she wrote notes to accompany a translation she made, and included within these was the famous seventh note many historians consider to be the first computer program (Lovelace, 2014). Other historians point to notes written by Babbage between 1837 and 1840 which include what could be considered programs for his Analytical Engine.
However, the real issue surrounding who wrote the first recognisable computer program, is probably the fact that she was a woman (Dominic, 2024). This is exactly the thing that Ada Lovelace Day exists to combat.
From my reading I think the key difference between them is that Babbage’s view of what his Analytical Engine could do was only concerned with commerce and calculations. Ada’s view was expansive – she could see the potential beyond an analytical engine to a computer that could do more than just add and subtract. Her note seven is written with her “poetical science” mindset and is a computer program as we recognise it today.
Her Seven Notes also raised further questions about the Analytical Engine and how future developments in capabilities would impact people and society, showing she was thinking beyond her collaboration with Babbage. (Fuegi & Francis, 2003)
That is her important contribution – the vision.
Ada Lovelace Today
This is my contribution to Diana’s newsletter so I will, of course, finish with Doctor Who!
Ada’s Notes
I have included a link below if you would like to read Ada’s notes on her translation of “Sketch of the Analytical Engine invented by Charles Babbage” by L. F. Menabrea.
Enjoy your Ada Lovelace Day.
Clive Catton MSc (Cyber Security) – by-line and other articles
References
Lovelace, A. A. (2015). 1842 Notes to the translation of the Sketch of the Analytical Engine. Ada User Journal, 36(3).
Dominic, H. (2024). Ada Lovelace: The First Computer Programmer. Bluestocking Oxford. https://blue-stocking.org.uk/2024/06/14/ada-lovelace-the-first-computer-programmer/
Fuegi, J., & Francis, J. (2003). Lovelace & Babbage and the creation of the 1843’notes’. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 25(4), 16-26.
Further Reading
1842 Notes to the translation of the Sketch of the Analytical Engine – AA Lovelace
Ada Lovelace | Doctor Who | Doctor Who
Meet Ada Lovelace and Noor Inayat Khan | Spyfall: Part Two | Doctor Who: Series 12 – YouTube
